WWII w/ a focus on the Pacific Campaign

1. WWII w/ a focus on the Pacific Campaign • I will start out giving students a brief overview • Read as a class: Causes of WWII • Students will complete a fill-in outline as they read. • Assessment: WWII Causes Quiz (Teacher Created Materials) 20th Century Wars.

2. Mini-project • Students will record information about a chapter event in a star graphic organizer. They have to choose one of the events and describe and/or illustrate it by using the 5 W’s. (SS text pp. 558-563) • p.190 Star Graphic - Enlarged pattern will be done on construction paper or cardstock. • Students will give brief presentations to the class discussing their event. • Events: Pearl Harbor, internment camps, Normandy Invasion, Holocaust, Hiroshima/Nagasaki • Assessed with project rubric

3. How did the U.S. enter WWII? • Next we will turn our focus toward U.S. involvement in the war. • How does the U.S. get involved? • Students should have more background knowledge on this after listening to the presentations. After some discussion we will watch the video AMERICA The Story of Us.

4. Worksheet • Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor? • What was the end result of the attack on Pearl Harbor? • After hearing President Roosevelt’s speech, would you have been motivated to fight for your country and/or help with the war effort? **Here I would give them time to write and share their responses with the class.

5. Research activity • Students will spend time in the computer lab learning about The Pacific War after Pearl Harbor. • www.socialstudiesforkids.com • Read Japanese Successes • What areas in the Pacific did Japan gain control of after the attack on Pearl Harbor? • Why was Japan able to have these early successes in the Pacific? Give 2 reasons. • What was the Bataan Death March?

6. Research Activity Continued • On the Road to victory • How was the U.S. able to defeat the Japanese at the Battle of Midway? • What did the U.S. hope to gain by “Island Hopping?” • Rather than giving up, Japan began kamikaze raids intentionally flying planes into American ships. Do you think these pilots were brave? Justify your answer • Why was President Truman troubled by his options for defeating Japan? • What was his ultimate decision? Do you agree or disagree with this decision?

7. Scholastic DVD – The Philippines –A Discouraging loss The Bataan Death March • Glenn Frazier: Bataan Death March • Glenn Frazier survived the Bataan Death March, but had he known what was ahead of him at the time he would have "taken death." • From THE WAR, Episode 1:NARRATOR: The prisoners were prodded northward, 300 at a time. They were to walk from Mariveles to San Fernando, then be loaded onto railroad cars for the journey to Camp O’Donnell in central Luzon. What followed would be remembered as the Bataan Death March.GLENN FRAZIER: If we had known what was ahead of us at the beginning of the Bataan Death March, uh, I would have taken death. It was very, very difficult for us to understand because we had had no contact with the Japanese whatsoever as to what these people are all about. And what they’re like. And they immediately started beating guys if they didn’t stand right or if they were sitting down. We didn’t know where we were going. We didn’t know anything. And we were stopped on the way, some of us were, and searched and beat again. And all our possessions were taken away from us. Some of them had rings that they just cut the fingers off, and take the rings. They poured the water out of my canteen to be sure that I didn’t have any, any water. I saw them buried alive. When a guy was bayoneted or shot, laying in the road and the convoys were coming along, I saw trucks that would just go out of their way to run over the guy in the middle of the road. And when by the time you have fifteen or twenty trucks run over you, look like a smashed tomato or something. And I saw people that had their throats cut because they would take their bayonets and stick it out through the corner of the truck at night and it would just be high enough to cut their throats. And beating with a rifle butt until there just was no more life in them. I saw Filipino women cut. Their stomachs were cut open. Their throats were cut. I saw Filipinos and Americans beheaded just with one swipe of a saber. I marched six days and seven nights, never stopped, I did not have but one sip of water and no food. Now, they say that you can’t do this, but I did. When I got to the end of the march after, uh, at the end of the entire march where I stopped to get on a train, they put us on a train. My, my tongue wouldn’t even go back in my mouth. And if you look and talk to somebody about that, they’ll tell you that’s how close to death I was. • http://www.pbs.org/thewar/detail_5336.htm

8. Response to First Person Account • After reading about Glenn Frazier’s experience, describe your feelings about what occurred? What is your opinion of the “Japanese Soldier?”

9. Hiroshima/Nagasaki Cartoon • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSO8W_qkWNw&feature=player_detailpage • After watching the video about the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima students will revisit the following question: • Do you agree or disagree with President Truman’s decision to use the A-bombs to end the war? • Do you think bombs of this magnitude should ever be used in war again?

10. Important Vocabulary • Reparations • Facism • Communism • appeasement • blitzkrieg • Dictator • Axis • Allies • World War II • internment camp • concentration camp • Holocaust

11. Important people • Benito Mussolini • Adolf Hitler • Joseph Stalin • Dwight D. Eisenhower • Harry S. Truman

12. Further info needed • European Campaign • 20th Century Wars • WWII The Fighting -Teacher Made Resources • Spotlight on Iwo Jima • Background • Diary of Lt. John R. Whelan USMC • Article from the Quincy Herald